


An ongoing intervention

by Rozzlynn



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 12:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20135362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rozzlynn/pseuds/Rozzlynn
Summary: Set immediately after episode 147. Jon is not very self aware. His colleagues are now alert to this issue.





	An ongoing intervention

**Author's Note:**

> This might be continued, and if so the tags and rating may increase. The original idea was for something a bit longer, but the next episode is due to joss this pretty soon, and there won't be much point posting it afterwards, so here, have a short bit of gen. If canon makes this characterisation look hopelessly optimistic, I'll just leave it as it is.

"...At least I know I can stop. I just don’t know how. I... I don’t... want to stop."

Jon took a moment to process his own words. His fingers dug into the edge of his desk. The tape recorder whirred away quietly. He wouldn't have many more moments of quiet or calm, once the others heard this.

"...Goddamn, this one really took it out of me. I need to go lie down. End recording."

He stopped the tape recorder and slipped it into an inner pocket of his jacket. His feet carried him to the door of his office, and he fumbled it open.

"Jon? What did the statement say?" Basira asked, rising from her seat at the nearest table. Daisy and Melanie looked up, their expressions somber and suspicious.

"See for yourself." Jon waved a hand toward his desk, where the piece of paper still lay out in the open. "I - I'm going to take a nap in the tunnels. That was a - a bit much, as a statement."

Daisy caught his arm as he tried to breeze past.

"Why not rest in Document Storage?" Daisy suggested. "Easier to keep an eye on you there."

"No, I, I need to go - "

"You want to hunt, don't you?" Daisy asked softly, keeping a tight grip on his arm.

"I..." Jon froze up, belatedly registering the restless tension mingling with his exhaustion. "Oh. Believe it or not, I didn't notice until you said so, but... yes. Outside, there's - "

"For fuck's sake, Jon. We're not letting that happen," Melanie told him.

"Yes, that's... for the best." Jon tried to smile, but he wasn't sure he'd managed anything better than a grimace.

"Sit down." Daisy steered him towards a chair, and applied increasing pressure to his shoulder until he obeyed.

Basira joined them at the table, skim reading Annabelle's statement. "...The Web isn't the problem."

"N-no. I mean, it's _ a _ problem, but not the source of _ this _problem..." Jon admitted.

"Did you record it?" Basira asked.

"Yes." Jon absently tried to spin his chair, but Daisy had a hand on the armrest.

"Where's the tape?" Basira gave him a piercing stare.

Jon took out the tape recorder and handed it over. Basira hit rewind for a few seconds, and played back the last minute or so.

"...What. The. Hell." Melanie was the first to break the silence. "You don't even want to stop? And you were going to, what, hide this from us?"

"No, I - I knew we were going to talk anyway, at some point, and I... I've been honest with you, haven't I? But I'm tired, or at least I thought I was, and I, uh, haven't been making the best decisions lately - "

"No kidding." Melanie definitely didn't sound amused.

"I'm sorry. I suppose this is obvious, at this point, but I - I don't know what to do, I don't know how to fix this, and I should have told you sooner - "

"You should have told us months ago," Basira reminded him.

"Yes. So... What now?" Jon asked, looking around at the others.

"We're not letting you out of our sight, for a start," Basira told him.

"You do look like you could stand to get some rest. Why don't I come with you to Document Storage, keep you company while the others talk?" Daisy suggested.

Jon nodded and accepted her hand. As they stepped away from the table, he found himself wondering where Basira and Melanie were planning to hold their conversation, if they didn't want to be overheard. Once he was alone with Daisy, he could compel her into talking about something distracting enough that he wouldn't have much trouble slipping away. Hadn't Elias demonstrated that people weren't capable of offering much resistance while they were immersed in their worst fears?

"...No, no, n-no..." Jon pulled Daisy to a halt a few paces from the table. He couldn't, he couldn't... Hadn't all of them been through enough? What would Martin think of him, if he started following Elias' example?

"What?" Daisy leaned in, her gaze full of concern.

"I can't... I'm sorry. I can't be alone with any one of you right now. Or anyone else. Not while there's prey so close by," Jon admitted, forcing out the words while he could still bring himself to say this. "Even if I try to cooperate, I don't think I'll last long before compelling you, if only so that I can leave, and I don't - I won't let that happen. Please don't let that happen. I, I don't think I could control two of you at once, so..."

Daisy kept hold of his hand as the others approached. He'd never been so grateful to her.

"Thanks for the warning," Basira replied, dry amusement in her voice. 

Jon sighed as she stopped in front of him. "It's the absolute least - "

Basira punched him in the stomach, leaving him instantly doubled over and gasping for air. The next thing he knew, she'd forced him the rest of the way down to the floor and yanked his arms behind his back. A pair of handcuffs clicked into place around his wrists. 

"Come on, let's get him out of the way," Basira suggested, somewhere over his head.

Daisy and Basira dragged him to his feet and marched him into Document Storage. He tried to get his breath back, during the walk, but didn't bother trying to talk. Daisy shifted the camp bed along the wall until it rested alongside the radiator. Basira pushed him into sitting on the mattress, then looped his handcuffs around the pipes, so that he couldn't move his wrists further than a couple of inches from the wall.

"Wait here," Basira told him, somewhat redundantly. "We'll be back soon."

"We'll figure things out, alright?" Daisy added. "You didn't give up on me. I won't give up on you."

They locked the door to Document Storage after leaving. 

Jon leaned against the radiator, pacing his breaths as the pain gradually faded. Did this count as another kidnapping if he was basically at home, and he'd more or less asked for it?

No, all things considered, this was simply an ongoing intervention.


End file.
